Little Princess
by Tlalen
Summary: A childhood game has unforeseen consequences...


Little Princess

_A/N: Remember the adorable 10-years-old Thor and Loki in the movie? For this story, picture them just a bit younger than that, about 8 years old. In Norse mythology, Thor & Loki had a younger brother, Baldur, and there is a story of the gods making a game out of throwing things at him..._

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><p>"Thor, take your brother."<p>

The young god's head turned sharply, eyes stormy at the prospect of an unwanted burden. "Aw, do I have to?"

Frigga leaned over and lifted the baby from the gilded cradle, placing him into Thor's unwilling arms. "Just for a little while."

Thor huffed and whined. "Can't one of your ladies look after him?"

"I'm asking _you_ to do it, Thor," Frigga said firmly, allowing no more room for argument. "Will you take good care of him?"

Thor pouted, but bowed his blond head. "Yes, mother," he agreed, and then sighed at the pink-faced baby in his arms. "Come on, Baldur. Let's go outside."

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><p>Though the day was clear and the Asgardian heaven eternally blue, a rebellious little raincloud began to form in the sky as soon as Thor was out of doors. Thor's childish mood swings had just started to manifest themselves in this manner, and the elder warriors were already shaking their heads, impressed by the child's potential but disapproving of his apparent lack of restraint.<p>

With the half-formed cloud trailing him high overhead, Thor carried his baby brother out into the Asgardian forest, eventually setting him down in front of a large rock formation that had become one of Thor and Loki's favorite playgrounds in recent days.

Baldur, who was a little over a year old, was quite a proficient crawler and immediately began to explore the area, babbling happily to himself and unperturbed by the slowly churning clouds above.

Meanwhile, the eldest son of Odin frowned and kicked at a pebble in the dirt. Unfortunately, he kicked it harder than he'd meant to, and the pebble went sailing through the air—heading straight for Baldur's skull.

"No!" Thor managed to gasp, but even as the baby turned towards the sound of his brother's urgent cry, the pebble bounced off an invisible barrier a few inches from Baldur's face. Thor blinked a few times, wondering what had just happened. Cautiously, he picked up another pebble, and tossed it, underhand, at his baby brother.

The same thing happened—the tiny stone didn't actually impact its target, but was repelled by an unseen force a few inches away from his skin.

Fascinated, Thor picked up a pinecone, and chucked it at the baby. It too bounced away, causing no harm.

"What are you doing?" asked a familiar voice, seemingly from everywhere at once.

"Loki?" Thor spun around, eyes searching the forest. "All right, I give up. Where are you?"

The dark-haired boy materialized, sitting on top of the rock formation. There was a sword slung across his back and a grin on his face.

"You're getting good at that," Thor acknowledged.

"You'd be good at it too, if you listened when people tried to teach you things," Loki replied, jumping down from his perch.

"How long have you been up there?" Thor wondered.

"I followed you here. Mother asked you to watch Baldur, and then asked _me_ to watch _you_." His tone was just smug enough for Thor to feel challenged.

"Yeah, watch me as I _beat you up_."

Loki rolled his eyes, unprovoked. "I think she was just worried about the baby. Why were you throwing stuff at him?"

Thor brightened, his urge to fight forgotten, and the clouds overhead dissipated almost as instantly. "Oh yeah—watch this!" Thor picked up a stick and hurled it like a spear, and was delighted to see it deflected by Baldur's invisible shield.

Baldur, oblivious, continued to crawl and babble, pausing only to smile up at his elder brothers.

"Hmm." Loki said, intrigued. "Let me try…" he looked around for a stone, found one about the size of his fist, and threw it at Baldur's head. For a split second the boys held their breath, half-dreading that the magic would fail and the baby would be struck—but then the stone hit the barrier and bounced harmlessly into the brush.

"Good one!" Thor cheered, and Loki felt a tiny beam of sunshine shoot all the way through him in response. Thor was already searching the nearby ground. "Let's find a bigger one!"

Together they decided on a melon-shaped rock, and together they struggled to carry it over to where baby Baldur sat. Thor caught Loki's eye and both their faces gleamed with the mutually understood brilliance of their intended action. "On three," Thor said, and Loki nodded. "One… two… three—_huh!_"

Together they flung the rock at Baldur, and together they rejoiced as it fell to the ground beside the baby as if it had struck a solid wall.

"That must be some powerful magic," Loki mused as they both caught their breath. "I wonder if we cut down a tree and the tree fell on him, would it still hold up?"

"I wonder if it could hold up if a whole _mountain_ fell on him!" Thor added, excitedly imagining all the ways to test Baldur's strange magic shield.

"_I _wonder what it would do if we threw him in a volcano," Loki countered, thinking of something cleverer than a boring old mountain.

"Or if we stabbed him with a sword!" said Thor, and then immediately stopped, his eyes locked on the hilt protruding behind his brother's shoulder.

Loki followed Thor's gaze, and instead of rays of sunshine, he began to feel something like a snake weaving its way through his ribs. A sword, Loki somehow _knew_, was different from a rock or a stick or even a volcano. A sword had a purpose. "Oh…I don't know, Thor," Loki balked.

"Come on, don't be a coward! Give it here."

The snake in Loki's chest began squeezing his heart. "But…it's a weapon. It's even a _named_ weapon. It might have magic or something."

Now it was Thor's turn to roll his eyes at his brother. "So it'll be magic against magic then. What's the big deal? Just give it to me. We _have_ to see what it does!"

Swallowing against the nervousness that he felt, Loki relented to the logic that no child could resist, and drew the sword. With ceremonial composure, he passed it to his brother, and Thor wrapped his hands around the hilt, eyes narrowing in confidence.

"It's Baldur the Bad, the Troll-king of the Fire Realm!" Thor narrated aloud, stalking towards the baby. "Who will slay this fearsome beast?"

He paused, raised the sword over his shoulder, and prepared to slash downward at the gurgling, pink-faced Baldur. "And it's _Thor_, son of Odin! Future King of Asgard! Raaaaah!"

Loki felt sick. Thor brought the sword down—only out of nowhere, another blade appeared, blocking and deflecting the blow. Thrown off balance, Thor stumbled to the side, and all three brothers looked up in surprise.

A young girl with a jet-black ponytail now stood in their midst, wielding a silver blade in a faultless fighting stance. A second blade remained in its scabbard at her side. "Sif!" Loki exclaimed, in both awe and relief. Baldur, startled by the sudden arrival of a new person, promptly clenched his eyes shut and began to wail. And Thor looked angry enough to throw a tantrum of his own.

"What is your _problem?_" Thor huffed, as a distant rumble of thunder underscored his words. Loki bit his lip, wide green eyes glancing up at the sky.

"My _problem_ is that _you _were attacking a baby with a sword," Sif stated, and then crouched beside Baldur to try and cheer him up.

"He's got a magic shield," Loki offered, as if that explained everything. Sif brushed her dark bangs out of her eyes, and then scooped Baldur up into her arms.

"Shush now, you're all right," Sif cooed, and Baldur lessened his crying. "No wonder your mother cast that spell, to protect you from your stupid brothers. There now… see? You're all right now, aren't you, Baldy-boy?"

Thor scrunched up his face in disgust. "I wish you wouldn't call him _'Baldy-boy'_."

"Aw, he likes it! Don't you, Baldy?" Sif bounced the youngest prince up and down, and was rewarded with a big smile and a happy noise. "See?" Satisfied that the baby was finished with his crying, Sif put him back down, and then turned her attention to Thor and Loki.

Thor, she immediately identified, was in a mood. And Loki looked still looked halfway relieved and halfway guilty. But then again he always looked guilty around Sif, ever since that unfortunate hair-cutting incident a few years back.

"So…you think our mother gave him the shield?" Loki asked, somewhat hopefully.

"She made everything swear an oath not to harm him," Sif informed them. "Plants, animals, rocks, everything. Don't _either_ of you pay attention?"

"She didn't make _me_ swear," Thor pointed out.

Sif folded her arms and stuck her nose in the air. "Probably because she _knew_ you'd just break your word."

"I would not! _I _would _never_ go back on my word," Thor insisted.

"You're a liar!" Sif accused, pointing right between his eyes. "Yesterday you gave your word we'd go riding this morning, and I got permission from my parents and everything, and I was waiting at the stables _by myself!_"

She said this as if being left alone was the greatest crime, and indeed she felt so strongly about it that tears welled up in her hazel eyes.

Thor's distress was immediate, and manifested itself in a scatter of unsteady raindrops. "Sif, I'm sorry! I forgot about that, and then my mother asked me to watch Baldur—I'm really sorry. It wasn't on purpose."

Angrily wiping her eyes with her sleeve, Sif shook her head. "Wonderful, now it's _raining?_ I bet that's not _on purpose_ either, huh? Now my clothes are going to get all wet, and it's all your fault!"

Loki reached out and put his hand on Thor's shoulder. "Brother," he said quietly, glancing up at the sky. "Maybe if you'd just concentrate…"

"I already told you, I _can't!_ If I'm angry, I'm _angry_. It's not my fault!"

"It's _entirely_ your fault, you idiot!" Sif declared.

"Just… think about something else," Loki advised, sounding a little too parental.

"No!" Thor shouted, and shoved his brother backwards so hard that Loki fell to the ground. Loki looked up, eyes huge and wounded—but the raindrops stopped.

Thor took a couple of breaths, and Sif and Loki exchanged glances behind his back, silently trying to determine whose turn it was to cheer Thor up _this_ time. Sif narrowed her eyes, tucked her lower lip in and tipped her chin down, administering the deadliest glare she could muster.

Loki got the hint. "Never mind," he said, getting to his feet. "Look, Thor, now that Sif's here, let's play something."

Thor pouted. "Like what?"

Sif brightened. "I've got two swords, so we can practice sword fighting, if you like."

"Or we could pretend it's a mission," Loki added, knowing that Thor liked to imagine they were always on some kind of quest. "We could have to fight Grimhild, the evil sorceress."

"And _you_ could play Gunnar," Sif said snobbishly, offering Loki the role of the evil sorceress's ineffectual son.

Now it was Loki's turn to pout. "I'd rather be Sigurd," he muttered.

"But Gunnar married Brynhildr, right?" Thor asked.

Sif narrowed her eyes at Loki again, and then turned to Thor, eyebrows high. "Right. And then she told him to _kill_ Sigurd. So, that's fine: Thor can be Gunnar."

"Wait… which one rescued her from the tower?" Thor asked, confused. Sif pursed her lips, scowling.

"That was Sigurd," Loki clarified. "Sigurd rescued her, and Sigurd was her true love."

"Ugh," Sif exclaimed, ostensibly disgusted by the prospect of Loki playing the great hero. "Forget it, let's play something else."

"I don't know why you'd want to be Brynhildr anyway," Thor said, with an air of condescension. "Wasn't she…you know… a mortal?"

"She was _turned_ into a mortal," Sif explained, as if reading a story to a toddler. "By your father, Odin."

Thor grinned, and both Sif and Loki looked up as every last wisp of cloud suddenly vanished. "Can you imagine having the power to do that?" Thor asked, clearly excited. "I mean, can you imagine doing that to someone? _Bang,_ you're a mortal now? That would be the worst thing ever!"

Loki's brow furrowed. "I'm sure Father had a good reason for it."

"It's not like he'd do something like that on a whim," Sif added, completely ignoring the grateful glance that Loki sent her way as she inadvertently backed him up.

"Why not?" Thor asked. "He's King of Asgard, isn't he? He can do as he likes."

"But he _doesn't_ just do what he wants; he does what's best," Loki insisted.

"So the beating you got for that prank you pulled on laundry day—that was _what was best_?" Thor countered, and his brother immediately turned red in shame. "You didn't think so then!"

"Will you two stop it?" Sif demanded, in high-pitched frustration. "I changed my mind, anyway. I want to be Princess Aslaug."

"And I'll be Ragnar," Loki chimed in, hoping as always to claim the hero's role.

"And I'll be Lathgertha!" Thor said, with particular enthusiasm.

Sif and Loki traded glances again, and then they both stared at Thor. For a moment the only sound came from Baldur, who was happily playing with the pinecone that Thor had thrown at him earlier.

"…Lathgertha," Sif repeated. "Seriously?"

"She was a shield maiden," Loki pointed out.

"So what?" Thor shrugged. "She won the battle of Laneus, didn't she? I want to play that. And, if I'm Lathgertha and Sif is Princess Aslaug, then the two of us can fight over which of us gets Ragnar."

"Wait, wait, wait." Loki couldn't believe his ears. "You actually want to pretend to be a girl?"

"Sure," Thor said. "Like I said, she won the battle. What? You think I can't do it?"

"I think you're crazy," Loki declared.

"Well, _I _think it's great," Sif spoke up, happy for any chance to side with Thor against his brother. "You both don't mind letting _me_ pretend to be a boy when I want to."

"That's different," Loki protested. "A girl can do whatever a boy can do."

Sif cocked her head to one side, mulling that over, and then found herself unable to keep a smile off her face. "I see what you mean. And I agree: there are some things a girl can do, that a boy cannot."

"What are you two talking about?" Thor scoffed. "_I _can do anything I want."

"Oh? Can you wear a dress?" Sif challenged.

"No problem," Thor boasted. "I could wear a dress for a whole week."

Loki couldn't resist. He kept his expression cool, his green eyes giving not the slightest hint that this was a set-up. "...I don't believe you."

"Then I'll prove it! One whole week. I swear."

Thor had fallen right into it, and didn't even realize what he'd done. Paradoxically, Loki was astonished beyond words, and yet also completely unsurprised.

"So…you give your word?" Sif clarified.

Thor was the very picture of resolve and determination. "I do."

"_Good_," Sif said, her eyes flashing. "Let's see if maybe this time you can _keep it_. Oh, and one more thing: since _you're_ actually a prince and _I'm_ actually going to be a shield maiden someday, let's trade roles. _I'll_ be Lathgertha."

Now, finally, Thor seemed to have doubts. "You want _me_ to be Princess Aslaug? But I wanted to be the one to win the battle."

"We can play it so that _both_ of us win the battle together," Sif offered. "And then, _you_ can win the fight for Ragnar, since that's how it happened in the story."

Her reasoning seemed infallible, but deep down, Loki realized that Sif's motivation for changing parts in the game was just to avoid playing the true love of the character that Loki would be playing. His heart sank; she still hated him.

"Besides," Sif couldn't stop herself from adding, casting an extra-murderous look at Loki. "Thor has prettier hair than I do. Much better for playing a princess."

Loki closed his eyes, reliving once again the awful day when his little joke had gone too far. The excuses were stale and moldy, but they were all he had. "I was only six… I didn't know what I was doing. And I _tried _to fix it," he muttered, frustrated anew at his utter failure then, and his constant failure to atone for those actions ever since.

"Well, it's fine," Sif said in a clear, strong voice. "Everyone says it will make me look more ferocious as a shield maiden."

"Ha," said Thor. "_I_ think it makes you look like Loki's twin sister!"

Loki made the mistake of glancing at Sif just in time to see the revulsion on her face, which quickly morphed into anger.

"You—you're an _ass_," Sif said to Thor, and Loki was struck by how unfair it was that that she could get away with expressing that sentiment so openly.

All smiles, Thor mimicked a curtsy. "That's _Prince-Ass_ to you."

"Don't talk like that in front of baby Baldur."

"You said it first!"

"Only because it's true. I wasn't making a joke out of it!"

Thor and Sif were arguing, cheerfully, no storm clouds in sight. And once again, although he loved them both dearly, Loki wished he were somewhere else. He was the proverbial third wheel, and he knew it.

Only the thought of Thor wearing a dress for a week kept Loki from gloom. And then, out of the blue, Loki remembered something that made him burst into a fit of giggles, causing Thor and Sif to pause their quarrel to look at him. "S-sorry," Loki laughed. "But it's perfect! I just remembered: Princess Aslaug had another name. She was known—" laughter overwhelmed him for a second, as Thor and Sif traded puzzled expressions. "—as Princess _Thora_!"

And so it was settled: Thor would be 'Princess Thora,' not just for their game, but for an entire week. And, unbeknownst to the children, the wheels of fate began turning, and the future of the God of Thunder and all the Nine Realms shifted—for 'Princess Thora' would make a strong impression, and rumors would spread even as far as Jotunheim…

But all of those consequences were far in the unseen future and did nothing to lessen the joy of the three children in the forest that day, as they leapt and climbed and waved their swords in the sunlight.

...to be continued...probably :)

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><p>AN: edit: changed one line. In the movie, Loki's eyes looked incredibly blue to me, but it turns out that his eyes are in fact GREEN! Big thanks to the reviewer who caught that for me!


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